Sedgefield Players
This award winning drama group meets for rehearsals and technical workshops every Wednesday and Sunday evening in the Parish Hall, Front Street. Throughout the year, Sedgefield Players perform a wide variety of productions, as well as organising an excellent weeklong Drama Festival of One Act Plays.
New members are always welcome, whether your interest is in performing, working backstage or helping out in some other capacity. No auditions necessary just come along to a Players meeting.
The Players are also joined in productions by members of the Youth Section - SPYS.
Contact: Haydn Neal, Secretary, 49 The Orchard, Sedgefield TS21 3AQ
Telephone: 01740 620091
E-mail:
haydnneal@onyxnet.co.uk
Sedgefield Players own website
EVENTS
September 2007 Drama Festival
Another year has passed, the Parish Hall is still standing, and still waiting for its promised improvements. This will not stop us presenting our 32nd Drama Festival of One Act Plays.
This year eight groups will perform ten plays.
Our GODA adjudicator in 2007, David Vince, is new to us but comes highly recommended. We look forward to his adjudications.
Tuesday September 25th
Sedgefield Players Youth Section (SPYS): The Reunion by David Foxton
Darkside Productions : The First Signs of Madness by Chris Neville-Smith
Cliffe Theatre : In by the Half by Jimmie Chinn
Wednesday September 26th
Sedgefield Players: The Window Cleaner by Gillian Plowman
Saltburn ’53 Drama Group Youth Section : Sparkleshark by Philip Ridley
Thursday September 27th
Sedgefield Players: Here I Come by Karin Young
Kirkby Malzeard Players : A Cut in the Rates by Alan Ayckbourn
Friday September 28th
Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society : Words, Words, Words by David Ives
Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society : One Season’s King by George MacEwan Green Statement Drama Company : An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein
Saturday September 29th
Final Adjudication by David Vince of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators,
followed by buffet, bar and party
Tickets £6 Concessions : £5
Season Tickets (inclusive of final night buffet) £22 Concessions £18
Saturday night tickets £4 (inclusive of buffet)
Season ticket holders are eligible to vote for the Audience Award
and are entered for a free prize draw.
PLEASE NOTE ! TICKETS WILL BE NEEDED FOR THE
FINAL NIGHT ADJUDICATION AND BUFFET
TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM SELECTIONS
AND MEMBERS OF THE GROUPS
or telephone 01740 621000
June 2007
The Players wish to invite you to a garden party (in the Parish Hall!) to meet with Algernon & Jack, their intended Cecily & Gwendolen and the indomitable Lady Bracknell as they come to learn The Importance of being Earnest.
You will be able to enjoy a drink during the evening; the first glass of wine is free!
March 2007
Our first play of the year, and our entry for the Isle of Man Drama Festival 2007 is Ladies Day, a comedy by Amanda Whittington.
Work, love and life are just one long, hard slog for the fish-filleting foursome Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda. But their fortunes are set to change when Linda finds tickets to Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot the year it relocated to York.
Out go the hairnets, overalls and wellies, as the four ditch work, do themselves up to the nines and head off to the races for a drink, a flirt and a flutter. If their luck holds, they could hit the jackpot – and more besides…
The Sedgefield Players
present
SLEEPING BEAUTY
by Allan Frayn
at 7pm on
Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th,
Friday 29th & Saturday 30th
and at 2pm on Saturday 30th December 2006
in Sedgefield Parish Hall
Tickets £6 (Concessions £5)
are available from Selections
and members of The Players (01740 621000)
10% discount for parties of ten or more
By kind permission of Samuel French Ltd
SEDGEFIELD PLAYERS SWEEP TO FESTIVAL SUCCESS
Sedgefield Players swept the board at their recent 31st Drama Festival One Act Plays, which ran from September 26th to 30th, in Sedgefield Parish Hall. Adjudicator Russell Whiteley of GODA, who has made several visits to Sedgefield, remarked on the wonderful atmosphere and excellent team spirit demonstrated at the festival. He commented, "I understand that last year at this time a huge question mark was hanging over the future of Sedgefield Parish Hall. I'm very pleased to see this excellent hall saved for continued use by the community and I look forward to hearing progress reports on the planned refurbishment."
Sedgefield Players won eight awards in all, including Best Production for "Romance" by John Reason. The play also carried off awards for Best Actress (Jean Hewling) and Best Under 21 (Sarah McGuinness) for their portrayals of the same woman at different stages of her life.
Sarah McGuinness - Jean Hewling - Norma Neal
Sedgefield's Richie Parry won Best Actor for his very funny portrayal of Jack in "Here I am Girls" and Terry West took the Cameo Award for his brief but telling appearance at the end of the same production. The Peter Young Quaich for Youth was awarded to Sedgefield Players Youth Section (SPYS) for their interpretation of "Stolen Memories" by Liz Sharp. This production, which told the shocking story of childhood immigration, where children were taken from their parents and sent to the colonies, losing their identity in the process, also won the Costume Award and the Adjudicator's award for the disciplined creativity shown by the very young cast.
Runners up, taking the Mayor's Award with "The Problem" were Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society, who also won the Ray Tate Award for Endeavour and the Best 30 Seconds Award for a moment of immaculate timing from Kirsty Spencer. Other awards went to York Rowntree Players, who received the award for Most Effective Set, and Statement Drama Company from Scarborough, who won the John Walker Memorial Award for Technical Presentation. David Irwin of Statement won the Best Supporting Actor Award and Best Supporting Actress was Jackie Jones of Masham Players in "The Last Bread Pudding", which also won the Audience Award.
With 8 plays from 5 different companies and good houses every night, the Festival was a resounding success. Awards and certificates were presented by local hero World Spoons Playing Champion Bert Draycott, who held the audience spellbound at the party after the final adjudication and presentation of awards. Sedgefield Players were delighted with the success of their Festival, marred only by the failure of the Town Council to acquire a licence to serve alcohol. Thanks to the generosity of a mystery benefactor, the audience was treated to a free interval glass of wine each evening and a delicious buffet completed the festivities on the Saturday night. Festival Secretary Norma Neal was very proud of the continuing success of the Festival. "When we hit 30 last year, "said Norma, " and were having such problems over the future of the Hall, I was worried that maybe we had reached the end of the line. But this year has proved our mettle. Sedgefield Players and their Festival are still very much alive and kicking !"
Norma Neal (Sedgefield Drama Festival Secretary; Chairman of Sedgefield Players)
'IT COULD BE ANY ONE OF US'
IN THE ISLE OF MAN
Sedgefield Players had another well-deserved success at the Isle of Man Drama Festival this Easter, when they took their production of Alan Ayckbourn's comedy thriller "It Could Be Any One Of Us" to the stage of the beautiful Gaiety Theatre in Douglas. Very well received by Sedgefield audiences in March, the play saw the return to Sedgefield of Paul Baguley in the role of Norris, the incompetent and aggravating amateur detective who spectacularly fails to work out who dun it. On only his second visit to the Manx Festival, Paul came away for the second time with the award for Best Actor. He first won the award in 2000 in the all-male production "Neville's Island".
